You can find the first to reviews of Sevilla and Córdoba here and here. This is another scheduled posting and I should be on the way home from my cousin’s wedding when this gets posted.

I got to Málaga on Wednesday quite late, so that night I didn’t really do much. I ended up having dinner with two Dutch guys at the hostels. They had cooked too much food, so they asked if I wanted to eat with them. It was actually quite good and very nice to meet the people at the hostel.

On Thursday, I went to see the Cathedral, and then ran some errands [going to the bank, buying new SD memory cards for my camera because I knew else I would run out of space in Granada]. I ended up taking quite a long nap in the evening after taking a walk along the beach [which was just a few minutes from the hostel]. I had a cold so I tried to rest more during my stay in Málaga. It worked out quite nicely as there was not that much to see in Málaga anyway.

That night I watched the Germany - Portugal soccer game on TV with a bunch of people at the hostel, and I was the only one there who was supporting Germany. Al the others were supporting Portugal even though none of them was actually Portuguese. That made it even better that we won! I ended up getting a free drink from the barkeeper too! Sweet! After the game, I went running along the beach which was really nice. There is actually a running route on the beach and the sand is not as soft so it is good for running.

On Friday, I went to Nerja with a Kiwi girl I met at the hostel, and we had a really great day there. We first went to see the cave which was just breathtaking. I don’t think the pictures can even capture how amazing it was, it really makes you aware of how amazing nature is.

Continue reading Málaga & Nerja…

[This is a scheduled post. I should be on a plane somewhere between Barcelona and Munich at the time this is posted.] Read my review of Sevilla here.

I got to Córdoba on Tuesday in the early afternoon. After dropping off my luggage at the hostel, I went right to the Mezquita [mosque]. Its construction was started in the year 600, about 1400 years ago, and it was turned into a Roman Catholic cathedral [which it is today] in the 13th century. It is a huge and very impressive building, with its arches seemingly repeating into infinity.

I then took a walk through town, through the Judería [Jewish quarter] as well as another quarter that is famous for its patios, to the Puente Romano an old Roman bridge.

Continue reading City #2 - Córdoba…

You have no idea how glad I am to be moving out here today [leaving for the airport in two hours actually] after the concierge just told me this:

On Sunday night my neighbor from downstairs [a very nice man, the only one actually I always talk to when I see him] came back from walking his dog, and downstairs there were two men outside the door. They came inside with him and told him they were visiting a tall, blonde girl in apartment 2.1. They got in the elevator with him, and mugged him.

I would have never expected something like this to happen here. It’s a good [reasonably good, I mean it is still downtown Barcelona] neighborhood and I never felt really unsafe here [though not as safe as in Munich or Heidelberg].

The weirdest thing is that they supposedly said that they were coming to visit a tall blonde girl in 2.1 which is my apartment. I am the only blonde girl here but not tall, but I was not even at home and had not been for over a week. It may be a coincidence, because they might have just said that. I doubt they hung out around the house for weeks before this to know where I live, or to see me walk into the building [and even then, how would they know my apartment number]. Might also be that the concierge made that part up [maybe they just said they are coming to visit a girl in 2.1].

But of course, either way, my neighbor didn’t suspect anything, I feel so bad for him. That must have been such a scary experience. I’m glad I am moving out of this building now. I don’t think I’d feel that safe anymore knowing something like that happened here while I was living here [I do know an apartment was broken into before in this building before I moved here].

It is almost 3am but I really wanted to post a review of the first city of my Andalusia trip before I go to bed. I was busy last night and today sorting through and uploading pictures. Maybe a lame way to spend my last day in Barcelona, but I think I needed the rest before this very stressful weekend. My friend Anna came by tonight for a short while which was nice. But I will hopefully be able to visit her in Vienna sometime this summer, so I think we will see each other again soon. And tomorrow morning I am going to have coffee with Clara.

I am kind of melancholy about leaving - I am so excited to go back home to Munich and see all my friends, but I am sad at the same time about the city and friends I am leaving behind. I do think I will stay in touch with some friends and probably see them again [Europe is not that big, especially thanks to cheap airlines] and I think I will definitely come back to Barcelona soon. There are still many places I want to see, and I have really come to love this city in the past year. It’s such a vibrant place, I don’t think coming back here could ever be boring, no matter how long I have lived here. Maybe that is why I don’t really feel the need to say goodbye. Or maybe I am just in denial and trying to make it easier for me not to think about it too much.

Anyway, on to Sevilla. Sevilla was really beautiful, and probably my favorite city out of the entire trip. I definitely took the most pictures there. It is so weird, it has not even been two weeks since I went there, yet it already seems so distant because my mind is filled with more recent memories from all the other cities. I had already posted a few pictures while I was in Sevilla, so here are a bunch more. I think it goes without saying that this [along with the following ones] will be a very image-heavy post but I hope you will enjoy looking at them.

The first day, all I did was a short walk around the neighborhood of the hostel and a tapas tour and a flamenco show that the hostel offered.

The next day, I went to visit the Alcázar, which is the castle of the city [every city I visited had one], and by the way, the one in Sevilla was the most beautiful besides the Alhambra [castle of castles] of course. I love the Moorish architecture that is so present everywhere in Andalusia. The details are so beautiful.

I also loved the gardens of the Alcázaba in Seville. You’d never know from looking at these pictures how dry Andalusia is.

Then I visited the cathedral, which was quite beautiful too. I went up the Giralda, the tower and had a nice view over the city.
Continue reading A review of Sevilla…